Akwesasne Notes Emergency Phone Tree
Organization profile published 1981

Publisher:  The Emergency Phone Tree, New York, NY, United States
Year Published:  1981
Resource Type:  Organization
Cx Number:  CX2267

The Emergency Phone Tree, which is activated in cases of extreme danger to various Native Peoples, has as its goal to make known to particular governmental agencies the collective concerns of the individuals participating in the phone tree.

Abstract: 
The Emergency Phone Tree, which is activated in cases of extreme danger to various Native Peoples, has as its goal to make known to particular governmental agencies the collective concerns of the individuals participating in the phone tree. It is organized as follows: Caller: a person responsible for making one round of calls (no more than five) to top governmental officials in a particular pressing situation; Activator: a person responsible for activating five callers under his or her supervision. The five callers and their activator would be from within the same area code; Head Activator: a person responsible for activating ten activators and delivering in a concise way all the pertinent background information and names/phone numbers of officials to be contacted ; Dynamo: a person willing and able, under an emergency situation to drop other work and make repetitive rounds of calls.

Thus far, the Phone Tree has been activated six times; twice on behalf of Central and South American Native struggle situations, and four times for North American situations. Each of these situation involved an immediate threat to a land-based Native People fighting for the right of their communities to survive.

Individuals or groups which would like to participate in the phone tree should contact Akwesasne Notes directly. People from countries other than the US are particularly encouraged to join this effort.